TAARII NEWSLETTER the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq

FALL 2007 PAGE 1 TAARII NEWSLETTER The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq

ISSUE NO. 2-2 FALL 2007 © TAARII

1950s BAGHDAD — MODERN AND INTERNATIONAL MINA MAREFAT, Design Research and Catholic University

Baghdad is an international capital of ever increasing importance and influence and headquarters of the Council of the Baghdad Pact. It is Iraq’s shop window to the world, and many will judge the country by what they see in its capital, both of the layout of the town and its amenities, and of the way in which its inhabitants live, and the provision that is made for their welfare in the form of good housing and social facilities.1

This 1956 observation by British architects and town plan- ners Minoprio, Spencely, and P. W. Macfarlane was in har- mony with the outlook Iraq’s Development Board brought to the capital city in the 1950s.2 While an ambitious program to rebuild Baghdad was not among its officially stated missions, the Development Board collectively and through its individual members introduced new ideas to reshape the city’s architecture.3 At the time, the young Middle Eastern nation was capti- vated by progress and battling for the legitimacy of a “modern” identity. The Iraqis wanted Baghdad to become the symbol and showcase for both (figure 1.1). Starting in 1955, the Board qui- etly approached several world famous architects, inviting them to participate in selected building projects for the capital city.4 Based on original research started many years ago, this essay examines some of the underpinnings of that building strategy as it took shape amid the ideas and visions, players and politics Figure 1.1. Baghdad City Center, View of Southgate Square (circa 1960). This Was the Location of the City’s Main Bus Terminal for Both Urban and Regional Public Transport (Published in Iraq Bulletin 1960)

of 1950s Iraq in what was to be a unique moment of East-West exchange.5 Between 1936 and 1939, the first master plan had introduced linear street patterns with the north-south Rashid Street, paral- lel to the river, forming the principal avenue for the city’s retail and business locations. The next record of urban planning is from 1954, when the Development Board commissioned the Minoprio, Spencely, and Macfarlane master plan. The firm was to study the four older parts of the city — Rusafa, Adhamiya, Karkh, and Kadhimain — to deal specifically with the main road system “including the principal existing roads and bridges and any new major roads or bridges considered necessary.”6 They also were charged to recommend land use, specifying areas for housing, industry, commerce, open space, and to identify the “New Buildings such as Schools, Shops, Clinics, or Car Parks.”7 The master plan completed in 1956 (figure 1.2) Figure 1.2. “The Master Plan for Baghdad, 1956” by Minoprio, Spen- cely, and P. W. Macfarlane, Architects and Town Planning Consul- presented specific recommendations for a university, a ma- tants, London. Markings on This Map Are By Frank Lloyd Wright jor sports center, and a civic center defined as a grouping “to (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) accommodate headquarter buildings of various Government PAGE 2 TAARII NEWSLETTER

ports. “Iraq’s unique agency,” as Time magazine called it, had built, started, or planned sixteen dams, two barrages to catch flood waters, numerous drainage ditches and canals, oil refiner- ies, textile plants, and sugar mills between 1950 and 1957. By the end of the first phase, hospitals, schools, factories, the royal palace, the house of parliament, and an Iraqi national museum were also under construction. The second five-year program (1955–59) saw a budget explosion from 0.3 to more than 1.4 billion dollars based on increased oil revenue.12 By the middle of the decade, the Development Board be-

Figure 1.3. Members of the Development Board, including Dr. Dhia Jafar, Minister of Development (left), and Prime Minister Nuri as- Said (center). See Figures 1.10–11 for Names and Portraits of All Board Members in 1957 (Development Week, 1957, pp. 8–9)

Departments.”8 These were among the buildings designated for commissions to Western architects, most notably Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gio Ponti, and Figure 1.4. Sketch of the Baghdad Medical Center, a Ten Floor Build- ing Containing a 950-bed Hospital, with Ancillary Installations and Alvar Aalto, each of whom easily ranked among his respective 9 Medical, Dental, and Veterinary Colleges, Estimated to Cost 3 Mil- country’s and the world’s best known architects. lion Iraqi Dinars. The board meant to mitigate the lack of hospitals, The Development Board was created by Iraq’s strongman which, it pointed out, “resulted on several occasions in a catastrophe” and fourteen-time Prime Minister, Nuri as-Said, when in 1950 (Second Development Week, 1956, p. 30) he forged an agreement with the British-American owned Iraq Petroleum Company to share half the oil profits with Iraq. Fi- nancing projects with seventy percent of the nation’s new oil revenue (figure 1.3) its initial program (1951–56) targeted such infrastructure basics as irrigation, flood control, swamp drainage, low cost housing, and improvement of village and rural conditions, then moved into land reclamation, agriculture, and upgrading existing areas, including grants of state land to small farmers.10 By 1955, the Board extended its focus to transportation, intending to “construct a modern communication system for linking the various parts of the country to each other.”11 Funds were allocated to roads, bridges, airfields, railways, and Figure 1.5. Modern Primary School Built Under the Development Board Programs, One of “75 constructed according to the most up-to- date designs ... we can easily foresee the effects of these buildings on learning and culture” (Second Development Week, 1956, p. 26)

gan to publicize its successes. The main vehicle was a trio of week-long events, in March of 1956, 1957, and 1958.13 Each of these Development Week events was both a major international publicity opportunity and a celebratory way to keep the Iraqi people up to date on progress, to mark achievements, and unveil future plans. Publications, news articles, and speeches apprised Iraqis of the scope of ambitions and what Develop- ment Board projects would mean for the people of Iraq. Dr. Dhia Jafar, Minister of Development, declared, “We are proud to say that the implementation of these major projects is being carried out within the financial capabilities of Iraq.”14 Nuri as-Said praised the “efforts in the service of our nation and the Figure 1.6. The New Iraqi Parliament Building, under Construction in prosperity of our country … to lead our countrymen to glory 1957 and prosperity,” with paeans to the government’s posture of FALL 2007 PAGE 3

lications by the Board, never clearly brought into focus as an element of the strategy of national advancement. Images of a future Baghdad Medical Center (figure 1.4) and the Kharkh Hospital in Baghdad, a new primary school (figure 1.5), a new Parliament building, and a Mosul educational unit and bitumen refinery appeared in a central color spread of the Second Devel- opment Week booklet. Throughout the publication, images of primary schools and housing projects were printed along with the predominating pictures of dams and bridges. As to building projects that would soon be commissioned to major master builders of modern architecture from around the world, there is no specific mention of this as a program or strategy in official Development Board pamphlets.20 Color plates included images of housing projects and examples of hotels, rest houses, and industrial buildings but no representations of the public buildings reserved for renowned architects. Under the category of “build- Figure 1.7. Sketch of the Development Board Office Building Pub- ings” was an interesting, symbolically-tinged reference to one lished in the 1957 Development Week Pamphlet. The Constructed project, the Parliament building: Building of Italian Architect Gio Ponti Resembled his Well-known The Development Board has given much attention to health Pirelli Building in Milan establishments and to educational and public buildings … A number of these buildings have already been constructed … humble service: This number includes government buildings such as the Par- The gold which is being produced from under the earth is liament, which is the most important building constructed so your property. It is from the people to the people. This is far by the Development Board. It was designed according what the Government believe in, hold fast to, and work hard to the latest architectural style, and will cost ID. 2,750,000 to achieve … [W]e have carried out our development pro- ($7,700,000) so as to render it compatible with the glory of gramme most eagerly and faithfully.15 the country.21 (figure 1.6) Iraqi leaders were proud of and vocal about their progress. A number of hospitals and their building budgets were also Summarizing achievements, the new Minister of Development listed; while most had been assigned to specific architects, the in 1958 grandly announced: Board felt it sufficient to note that the “responsibility for plan- [W]e do feel a justifiable pride in what has been accom- ning these hospitals is entrusted to Consulting Engineers of in- plished and is being accomplished … The participation and ternational repute who are also entrusted with other important 22 support of all the citizens of our beloved country is neces- hospitals.” sary for the fulfillment of the objectives which have been When the projects commissioned to Westerners were men- established. All can contribute to the success of this great tioned in official publications, it was usually as miscellany. national programme of development which will in turn con- Exceptions were the university and the Iraqi Museum,23 iden- tribute to the prosperity and well being of all of us.16 tified as specific projects with budgets allocated for each. A These statements merge the language of public pride and small perspective captioned “Building Planned for the Ministry public good “for the betterment of conditions in Iraq.” The de- of Development” appeared on page seven of the Second Devel- velopment program was seen as both source of wealth and sign opment Week pamphlet without reference to the fact that the of progress and modernity. There was, of course, a political un- derpinning to this rhetoric. As if aiming to assuage the Western fear of the spread the Soviet-backed development, a senior Iraqi official commented: “In Iraq today there is only one source of wealth: oil. We propose to use our oil income while we have it to create other sources of wealth. We aim to change everything. But we propose to do it by evolution, not revolution. Nasser’s way is not our way.”17 The meaning would be easily under- stood. Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser had distanced itself from the West, heightening American concern that other Arab countries might be inclined to follow its lead.18 An interesting question here arises as to whether and how the Baghdad buildings earmarked for international architects fit within this public rhetoric of strategic development as advancement of the people of Iraq.19 Although events connected with Baghdad building are well reported by Iraqi newspapers Figure 1.8. The Old Twaireej Bridge, an Image Used by the over the next five years, the employment of world famous ar- Development Board in 1957 to Highlight the Contrast between Past chitects to build in the capital gets short shrift in official pub- and Present PAGE 4 TAARII NEWSLETTER

Board had approached the well-known Italian architect Gio Ponti for this project (figure 1.7). The sketch is not by Ponti; likely it was produced in house by the Board’s technical staff. Under the catch-all category of “other projects,” the pamphlet listed student hostels, a new “Law Court building and public library,” slaughter houses, and “a fine arts building, an opera house, and a large sports stadium” without mentioning either allocation of funds for these last three projects or the fact that they were to be designed by selected architects from Western nations.24 The tone and emphasis of official Board publications thus remained dedicated to infrastructure projects couched in terms of utility and advancement for the largest number of Iraqi people. It is difficult to fit the Board’s buildings designated for famous architects into the same strategic frame as schools and hospitals, projects readily publicized as “from the people and to the people.” The nature of the commitment to prestigious Baghdad projects was more publicly conveyed in the pages of the Iraq Times. “Baghdad Will Become a Beautiful City” was the title of a 1957 Iraq Times article describing recent changes to the city: A vast street building and expansion programme is under- Figure 1.9. View of the New Adhamiyeh Bridge, One of Twenty New way in Baghdad which in a few years time will transform Bridges Built throughout Iraq under Development Board Oversight by the Iraqi capital into one of the most modern and beautiful 1957 cities in the Middle East. The article, and others like it, went on to note budgets and Baghdad was no exception. A central feature of the Baghdad plans for street construction “being carried out in accordance story is that rebuilding was championed by individual Board with the new city plan.”25 members and motivated by the climate of modernity that was Baghdad’s rebuilding seems indeed to have had an impulse emerging in the city as a young Western educated elite returned and dynamic different from the rest of the development strat- to Iraq. egy. It was typical for Middle Eastern nations, in late colonial This strong stance from the Development Board makes and early postcolonial periods, to focus on their capital cities. sense since a majority of Board members were educated in the West, mostly in America or Great Brit- ain. Throughout their tenures on the Board, many were traveling to the West on vaca- tions, on specific missions related to their professions, or to observe development in the West; a number had foreign wives.26 So- cially, most were also among the country’s elite, frequently members of a traditional landowning class or the well-established Figure 1.10. From Left to Right: Sayyid Fakhri Bakr (Secretary of the Board), Michael Ioni- merchant upper middle class enjoying strong dis (Executive Member from Great Britain), Sayyid Jalal Baban, Dr. Dhia Jafar (Minister of connections to the Hashemite government.27 Development), and Nuri as-Said (Chairman of the Development Board) A number of Board members also served as government department ministers, sometimes switching ministries rather fluidly. A leader among Western-educated Iraqis, Khalil Kanna was Minister of Finance and as such also a member of the Development Board and later served as Minister of Edu- cation.28 Some of the nuanced political tensions of the period would be reflected in comings and goings among Development Figure 1.11. From Left to Right: Taha El Hashimi (Vice Chairman), Khalil Kenneh (Min- Board members, although the tenure of Nuri ister of Finance), Abdul Majid Allawi, Abdul Jabbar Chalabi, Abdul-Rahman El-Jalili (All as-Said as Prime Minister brought a certain Executive Members). Not Pictured: Clifford Wilson, American Board Member and Point IV stability to the group, as did Minister of De- Program Administrator, who on March 23, 1957, Replaced Former American Member, Wes- velopment, Dr. Dhia Jafar, who served lon- ley Nelson FALL 2007 PAGE 5 gest as head of the Board. Jafar himself was a mechanical en- design professionals. Nor were history and tradition valorized gineering graduate of the University of Birmingham who was in the terms of the Board’s explicit infrastructural development also president of the Society of Iraqi Engineers for 1957–58.29 strategy. This is notably different from Iran, where the use of Not only Board members but also members of the Technical archaeological finds and their application to new government Divisions (coordinating the work of the Development Board), buildings had provided a major framework for a government many of them not native to Iraq, were Western educated. An- strategy and rhetoric adopted by Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1921– other related aspect of Iraq’s development strategy was a sys- 41) with the ultimate goal of political and cultural self-asser- tematic program of sending students abroad for higher education underwritten by historical legitimization.34 tion and training. This program accelerated to the point that By contrast, reference in Iraq to archaeological artifacts was in May 1957 there were at least 880 Iraqi students studying in strongly linked to the British presence. Their domination of Great Britain alone; an equal number if not more were studying archaeology was apparent in the Baghdad Museum.35 Further, in America.30 the young generation of Iraqi architects was critical of British The Iraqi vision and commitment to a modern identity for architects who had used historical elements on otherwise neo- Iraq is key to understanding the dynamics of major building classical public buildings. This “regionalized” style grafted projects in Baghdad after 1955. Despite internal politics and onto Beaux Arts design was specifically seen as colonial, in- membership changes in a government continually under pres- extricably associated with the British imperial tradition in In- sure, throughout the Development Board’s existence there was dia and the French in North Africa.36 The young generation of a cohesive element insofar as virtually all members shared a Iraqi architects was more inclined toward modern architecture desire to achieve progress by a Western standard. They envi- championed by leading architects in the West. sioned a modern Iraq emerging from a medieval shell and pro- It thus makes sense to see the Development Board approach ceeding, at speed and on a grand scale, down the path to mo- to key buildings and architects for the capital city as an expres- dernity (figures 1.8–9). Baghdad would showcase their vision sion of the cultural universe of the Iraqi elite — highly sophis- of modernity. Under the subtitle, “We Aim to Change,” Time ticated, educated people who valued their Western educations magazine summarized the Development Board’s approach and enjoyed Western entertainment, whether it was sports, mu- through the words of an anonymous senior Iraqi official: sic, or art. It is unsurprising that Baghdad’s symbolic modern We have a good word in Arabic. It is eimar. It means when buildings would be a university, opera house, sports stadium, you finish a house or complete some worthwhile thing, it and art museum and that these buildings in particular would be has a quality of progress. We call our program eimar.31 commissioned to leading world architects, none of them Brit- ish. Selecting international architects, Board members asserted The selection of particular kinds of buildings for Baghdad, their sophistication as present and future leaders of the modern and the choice of architects to design them, thus reflects the nation they envisioned. They claimed an international moder- intellectual climate of Iraq at that time, especially among an nity and, by significant choices, signaled their participation in educated class of people who were either decision-makers or it. With the exception, perhaps, of the university, the Baghdad influential advisors. Architect Rifat Chadirji recalls: projects were not so much beneficial buildings for the masses Baghdad was not so sophisticated in food and fashion as as they were culturally symbolic buildings expressing national in Beirut but we were far ahead in architecture and art. We prestige and the coming of age of Iraq as a nation among world were the first in the Arab world to absorb the major interna- nations. All reflected a particular group’s perspective on the tional trends and marry them to local traditions.32 Baghdad of the future. The viewpoint was beautifully summa- While there were occasional references to traditions or glories rized in Fahim Qubain’s chronicle of that period: of the past, most of these appeared in statements framed by politicians and diplomats largely for consumption by media in the West. Seasoned Iraqi politician, Khalil Kanna, for instance, put the development program in an interesting historical and political context for a United Nations group: Iraq spread civilization and culture to humanity twice in history, in ancient times and in its Golden Arab period in the Middle Ages. The awakening of Iraq after the eclipse, co- incided with a return to democratic rule. The fundamental trends of modern Iraq are in keeping with its psychological and historical set-up: the Arab revival, the democratic way of life and the parliamentary system of Government. Exter- nal factors and international potentialities diverted attention outside, and it is fairly recently that great efforts were put to internal reconstruction. The establishment of the Develop- ment Board marks the turning point …33 (figures 1.10–11)

This narrative providing a genealogy of democracy out of a Figure 1.12. Housing Project Planned by the Development Board, distant historical-cultural past did not represent a pervasive Published in the 1957 Development Week Pamphlet without Reference orientation among a younger generation of Western-educated to Its Well-known Designer, Greek Architect Constantine Doxiadis PAGE 6 TAARII NEWSLETTER

Iraqi society is also undergoing a cultural reorientation. Un- til recent years the aspirations of Iraqis, as well as those of most Arabs, were anchored in the past. Today, preoccupa- tion with the glories of the past among the vocal public is restricted mainly to religious divines, historians and antiquar- ians. Most educated Iraqis are concerned with the future and are groping for solutions to immediate problems. Generally, they are interested in establishing a new kind of society that will equip them to live the good life in the twentieth century world.37 (figure 1.12) More practically, a reaction to the historicizing British tradition brought a young generation of Iraqis together to influence the Development Board to commit to internationally prominent, modernist architects. These Western-trained architects actively engaged in reshaping the attitudes of the Board. Many were children of prominent Iraqis politically well connected to Figure 1.13. Ellen and Nizar Jawdat circa 1950s (Photograph by and the power hierarchy. Among those who played significant roles Courtesy of Rifat Chadirji) were the son of the then Prime Minister Ali Jawdat, Nizar Jaw- dat, and his American wife, Ellen, both of whom had studied both abroad and within Iraq predisposed them to prevailing under Walter Gropius at Harvard’s School of Architecture38 paradigms of progress and modernity. The future they antici- (figure 1.13). Mohammad Makiya, a young architect educated pated did not look to an ancient past, even if it was an age of in England, was another who informed the Board of alterna- glory. The Baghdad of their imagination was a cultural show- tives to the standard practice of engaging British architects.39 case of a new Arab identity in which the Iraqis saw themselves Rifat Chadirji, who went on to build a successful internation- not as torchbearers of a glorious Mesopotamian past but as the al practice, joined the Board’s technical division in 1952 as a representatives of a progressive, modern nation that could af- young Iraqi architect returning from Britain. He has shed clear ford the best. Theirs was an international and forward-looking light on the process of selection for building in Baghdad: impulse. I noticed they had some projects like Baghdad Central Sta- In the words of Ellen Jawdat, Iraq was “whirling through tion, the Parliament, and the Palace, which were commis- years of progress overnight.”41 sioned to British architects whose work were convention- al and not modern, among which was Cooper. This was a * To contact this author with questions or to provide information about concern among us, young architects. In a meeting between this period, please email her at [email protected]. Allen [sic, Ellen] Jawdat, Nizar Jawdat, Qahtan Awni and 1 London firm of Minoprio, Spencely, and P. W. Macfarlane, Archi- myself, we decided to approach the authorities and state our tects and Town Planning Consultants, “The Master Plan for Baghdad, concerns. A meeting was arranged to see the then minister of 1956 Report,” (London, 1956), p. 1. planning, Dr. Nadeem Pachachi. We met him privately in his 2 The reconstruction/modernization of Iraq during this period remains home and after expressing our concerns, it was agreed that a one of the most ambitious in the region at the time and is attracting list of international architects be prepared and submitted to scholarly attention in fields beyond political history. A Middle East him. I do not recall the exact date. I prepared the list and it Studies Association (MESA) Conference panel sponsored by TAARII was submitted personally by Qahtan Awni to Dr. Nadeem in November 2006, “Remembering 1950s Baghdad,” chaired by Mag- Pachachi. (May [have] been submitted by Ellen Jawdat) The nus Bernhardsson and Mina Marefat, presented five papers addressing list comprised of the following names, as far as I remember: various aspects of Iraq’s cultural and political awakening during the Frank Lloyd Wright 1950s. See the Caecilia Pieri and Mina Marefat, “Remembering 1950s Corbusier Baghdad,” TAARII Spring Newsletter, Issue 02-01 (2007), p. 14. 3 Gio Ponti This paper is condensed from the first chapter of an in-depth inves- Alvar Aalto tigation of the 1957–58 Baghdad building projects. I am indebted to Oscar Neimeyer the National Endowment for the Humanities for their support of my Amongst which all answered and would be willing to do research toward a forthcoming book focusing on Frank Lloyd Wright’s work in Iraq except Oscar Neimeyer who said he would not work in Baghdad, an elaboration of my chapter, “Wright’s Baghdad,” work for oppressive regimes.40 in Frank Lloyd Wright, Europe and Beyond, edited by Anthony Alof- sin (University of California Press, 1999), pp. 184–213. My current Chadirji’s recollection corroborates those of other participant TAARII grant permits deeper investigation of the role of Iraqis in observers such as Makiya and the Jawdats. Iraq of the 1950s Baghdad’s development. was an unusually rich environment for a young generation of 4 I was able to trace the first letter sent by the Development Board to artists and architects to exert influence on the shape of their so- Le Corbusier in late June 1955. Correspondence between Ellen Jawdat ciety, a level of influence not then found even in the West. Col- and Walter Gropius indicates that Gropius was also considered for lectively, these young professionals felt empowered by their commissions in Iraq as early as 1955. 5 Due to the lack of access and destruction of archival repositories training and their connections to participate in reshaping their in Iraq, obtaining precise information from Iraqi sources is difficult. country and their capital city. Their values were shared by the Contemporary publications and newspapers are important sources, Iraqi decision-making elite to whom they were connected by supplemented by personal interviews. I am grateful to Ellen and Nizar family or by profession. Their exposure to Western influences Jawdat, Rifat Chadirji, Mohammad Makiya, and Fahim Qubain for FALL 2007 PAGE 7 generously allowing me to interview them. I tions in the ideological and economic battles 30 “Baghdad Diary,” Iraq Times May 14, 1957, also thank Paul Arthur who shared with me of the Cold War world, and Iraqis were well p. 8, mentions the creation of a social club for insights from his Fulbright teaching sojourn in aware of it. the graduates of Great Britain aiming to “bring Iraq. Still seeking eyewitnesses and participant 19 My early treatment of the Board-sponsored together Iraqi students and their British and observers involved in the extraordinary exper- Baghdad building projects (cf. Anthony Alof- other friends and serve to inform the latter on iment that was Iraq’s Development Board, I sin, Frank Lloyd Wright, Europe and Beyond this nation’s modern program.” am interested in additional contact informa- [University of California Press, 1999]), as- 31 “A Quality of Progress,” Time, April 8, tion from readers of this paper. sumed that the Baghdad work was a com- 1957, “Foreign News — Iraq.” 6 Minoprio, Spencely, and Macfarlane, “Mas- ponent of the Development Board’s strategy 32 New York Times, June 18, 2003, interview ter Plan,” p. 1. just like the infrastructural projects. Subse- with Rifat Chadirji by Hugo Lindgren. I sus- 7 Ibid. quent scholarship has also presented Baghdad pect that melding international and local was 8 Ibid., p. 21. building as “a strategy” (see Panayiota Pyla, a later development in the practice of Chadirji 9 Other published articles on these projects in- “Rebuilding Iraq 1955–58,” Docomomo 35 and other young architects. clude my “Architecture Baghdad: Les Dessins (2006): 71–76; Joseph Siry, “Wright’s Bagh- 33 Iraq Times, September 28, 1957. de Frank Lloyd Wright,” Beaux Arts Magazine dad Opera House and Gammage Auditorium: 34 See Mina Marefat, “Fractured Globaliza- 2003: 68–74; and idem “Walter Gropius Mas- In Search of Regional Modernity,” Art Bulletin tion,” in New Global History and the City, ter Project for Baghdad University,” Docomo- 2005). As is so often the case, further research edited by Elliott Morss (Boston: New Global mo, (International Committee for Documenta- has led me to question and revise an initial no- History Press), pp. 137–75; idem “Building tion and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and tion to yield a more nuanced view of how the to Power, The Architecture of Tehran, 1921– Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement) 35 Baghdad building program came about, devel- 1941” Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts In- (2006): 78–86. oped, what sort of “strategy” it amounted to, stitute of Technology (1988); and idem “Pio- 10 Throughout much of the 1950s Americans and how it differed from other aspects of the neers of Modern Architecture in Tehran,” in were involved in the Middle East and in Iraq’s Board’s work. Teheran, Capital Bicentennaire, edited by development as part of an overall Cold War 20 Second Development Week, p. 33. Chahryar Adle and Bernard Hourcade (Paris: policy aimed to combat the rise of Commu- 21 Ibid., p. 27. The caption for the building un- Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, nism in the region. der construction described the facade as “de- 1992), pp. 95–125. 11 Development Week, 1958: Special Number picting Arab architecture.” 35 For a detailed and insightful analysis of the (Baghdad: The Iraq Times, 1958), p. 25. 22 Ibid., p. 28. politics of archaeology in the first half of the 12 The first five-year program budget was 23 The museum was designed by a noted Ger- twentieth century, see Magnus Bernhardsson, 168.74 Iraqi Dinar (ID) of which 164.64 ID man architect, Werner March, and inaugurated Reclaiming a Plundered Past: Archaeology came from oil revenue and the rest from an In- by King Faisal, according to the Iraq Times. and Nation Building in Modern Iraq (Austin: ternational Bank loan and other sources. The The Second Development Week (p. 28) report- University of Texas Press, 2005). Board came nowhere near spending the alloca- ed that “1,600,000 square meters at Jadriyah” 36 I differ with some of my colleagues (among tion. were being acquired for the university site. whom I count a distinguished friend, Joseph 13 Development Week, 1958: Special Number 24 Ibid., p. 28. Siry) who conclude that Iraqis consciously (Baghdad: The Iraq Times, 1958), p. 25. The 25 Iraq Times, May 28, 1957. There was clear- sought an Arab or regionalized modern archi- idea of Development Week was likely inspired ly a focus on cityscape revision, which had not tecture. I believe this did not happen until af- by existing programs; Iraq’s Education Week, yet moved to the level of detailing plans for ter the 1958 coup, and more specifically when for example, held its thirty-seventh annual the new buildings. The subsequent comings- many of the young generation of Iraqi archi- event the second week of November 1957. See and-goings of famous architects, however, tects reached maturity in their professional “Baghdad Diary,” Iraq Times, November 12, were carefully tracked in the Times. lives. 1957. 26 The “Baghdad Diary” of the Iraq Times 37 Fahim Qubain, The Reconstruction of Iraq 14 See Dhia Jafar’s “Introduction,” in Devel- reported, for example, a two-month trip of 1950–1957 (New York: Praeger Inc. Publish- opment of Iraq: Second Development Week, Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Jalili to Austria, West ers, 1958), p. 260. Qubain’s book, originally a Shaºban 1376–March 1957 (Baghdad: Board Germany, and Scandinavia (Denmark, Swe- University of Wisconsin dissertation, was later of Development and Ministry of Develop- den, and Norway). Iraqi officials often went published with a grant from the Foreign Policy ment, 1957), p. 6. to U.S. universities for meetings and training Institute. It remains a key source of informa- 15 “Praises Iraqi Achievements,” Iraq Times, purposes. Harvard University and the Ford tion on Iraq’s Development Board, 1951–58. March 28, 1957, p. 3. and Rockefeller Foundations were very active 38 Nizar and Ellen Jawdat contributed many 16 “A Message from Senator Salih Saib al Je- in organizing such conferences during this pe- interviews over the course of some ten years buri, Minister of Development,” Development riod including, for example, a May 1957 con- for which I thank them. More detailed discus- Week, 1958: Special Number (Baghdad: The ference on “Enterpreneurship in the Middle sions of their comments appear in my chap- Iraq Times, 1958). East.” This continued until the 1958 demise ter on Baghdad mentioned earlier and in my 17 “A Quality of Progress,” Time Magazine, of the kingdom, when the military came to the forthcoming book. April 8, 1957. Iraq was the only Arab mem- forefront and education was no longer a dis- 39 I am grateful to Mohammad Makiya, inter- ber of the Baghdad Pact and as such Nasser’s tinctive characteristic of decision makers. viewed in London in 2004, who offered insight chief rival in the Arab world. 27 Fadhil Jamali, who as Prime Minister was only possible from first-hand experience. 18 A discussion of the many technical, adviso- chair of the Board for two years was married 40 Letter from Chadirji to the author, October ry, and educational relationships, such as the to Sarah Palmer. 18, 1997; information verified in follow-up to Four Point Mission of 1951, forged between 28 Second Development Week identified Kenna telephone conversation on October 10, 1997, the United States and Iraq during this period as Minister of Finance. By May of the same as well as in interviews in 2003 and 2004. is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of this year, he was serving as Minister of Education. 41 Ellen Jawdat, “The New Architecture in paper. The key point is that Iraq, the Middle 29 “Baghdad Diary,” Iraq Times, January 27, Iraq,” Architectural Design March, 1957, p. East, and oil occupied newly strategic posi- 1956, p. 8. 79. PAGE 8 TAARII NEWSLETTER

PRESIDENT’S REPORT MCGUIRE GIBSON The situation in Iraq looks even grimmer, and the life for academics is virtually impossible. You become aware of the conditions in Baghdad from a few media reports, especially on National Public Radio (NPR) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). And of course, the internet is fundamental to gaining any news at all. A recent report detailed the hour-long crossing of the Tigris River because only one bridge is still open. The simple filling up of a petrol tank still takes hours of waiting in the heat. How can people be expected to report to work or to attend classes? But some people still try to lecture or at least go to the universities enough to help students finish their degrees. The brain drain continues, and the neighboring countries are increasingly full of Iraqi scholars. The Scholars at Risk program can aid a handful, but all intellectuals in Iraq are at risk. TAARII continues to try to help in a small way by supplying research funds to individual scholars. We also want to continue sending new books to our colleagues and to the university and research libraries, but we have now been made aware of a change in the U.S. Postal Service whereby book shipping by sea has been discontinued, meaning that all books will now cost four or five times more to send than had been the case only a month ago. We are looking for alternate ways of getting the books to Amman, where our resident director will be able to send them on to Iraq. There is some good news. We have received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue and expand the Iraqi Oral History Project. Additionally, a small group of Iraqi and American archaeologists will work together this summer to finish preparing Iraqi excavation reports for publication. Already two articles have appeared and one is in press. Our fellow- ships for U.S. scholars continue, and we urge faculty and students to apply. We hope to receive a number of good dissertations to consider for the TAARII prize this year, thereby helping to keep vibrant U.S. scholarship on ancient, medieval, and modern Iraq. That betterment of scholarship and our commitment to a continuing cooperation with our Iraqi colleagues comprise our purpose, and we will keep seeking new ways to realize it.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT STEPHANIE PLATZ In this issue, we feature research on Iraq in the twentieth century by current TAARII Fellows. Sara Pursley summarizes research toward her dissertation at the City University of New York on the subject of the origins and consequences of legal reforms in Iraq circa 1959. In her essay, Pursley tells a new story of conflict and controversy surrounding the Personal Status Law of 1959, in which familiar oppositions of left and right, progressive and traditional, secular and religious cannot adequately encompass the complex views and changes at stake in reform. She outlines these stakes, illuminating their significance for personal selfhood, as well as modern, national statehood. The picture of intersecting interests portrayed holds relevance for analysis of Iraq in the present moment. Like Pursley, Haytham Bahoora studies the years between 1950–1963, for a dissertation at Columbia University. Emphasiz- ing Iraqi culture in the period, Bahoora looks to literature and architecture, among other fields of cultural efflorescence, to illus- trate the development of a new Iraqi identity in relationship to both modernism and modernity. Likewise, scholar and architect, Dr. Mina Marefat, considers Iraq in the 1950s. She outlines the origins and history of Iraq’s Development Board, which linked architecture, transportation, public health, and other systems in a grand effort to modernize the country. Embracing modernism, in this setting, the Development Board aimed to position Iraq for a modern future and the departure from its legacy of British colonialism. Taken individually and together, these three studies represent a major contribution to the understanding of modern Iraq in the twentieth century. Also in these pages, TAARII Resident Director, Lucine Taminian updates TAARII readers on the status of TAARII’s Iraqi Oral History Project (IOHP). As President McGuire Gibson mentions in his report, we are happy to announce that we have received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the first three-year phase of our three-phased project. This award will enable six interviewers to conduct 180 interviews by the summer of 2010, in Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, the U.S., and Western Europe. A large segment of the interview texts will be translated and we hope to begin making them available for research through a new archive well before the end of the grant period. This autumn, TAARII will jointly sponsor with the Hollings Center a conference entitled, “Unity and Diversity in Iraq: The Nation’s Past and Future.” This meeting, to be held in Istanbul, will convene scholars from Iraq, its neighbors, the U.S., and Western Europe to examine regional influences upon Iraq and ties of its minorities to the broader region. Grounded in historical scholarship, this multi-disciplinary meeting will be forward-looking and aim to identify trends that, if nourished, could increase stability within Iraq itself. Finally, in this issue, as in previous issues, we want to acknowledge — with feeling — the conditions of intolerable dif- ficulty within which our Iraqi colleagues are working. Their dedication and perseverance inspires us and their suffering grieves us. We solicit suggestions from our readership for programs that will meet their needs and further TAARII’s aim to support academic cooperation between Iraqi and American scholars. FALL 2007 PAGE 9

CULTIVATING THE NATION-SPACE: MODERNISM AND NATION BUILDING IN IRAQ, 1950–1963

HAYTHAM BAHOORA, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Current political discussions of Iraqi resituate discussions of Iraqi identity identity, in the media and among pol- by considering the relationship between icy makers and academics, emphasize this modernist cultural production — the sectarian nature of the Iraqi na- primarily in literature and architecture tion, a mode of analysis that eternally — and the national development proj- forecloses the possibility of Iraq ever ects that were evidence of Iraq’s rapid establishing secular cultural and politi- industrial development. cal institutions that would transcend What were the origins of aesthetic sectarian and religious affiliations. But modernism in Iraq? What was the re- even prior to the American invasion lationship between industrial and eco- and occupation of Iraq, this view of nomic development financed by an oil Iraqi identity prevailed among histori- economy and orchestrated by the Iraq ans, vindicated, it would appear, by the Figure 2.1. The Rafidain Bank, Baghdad, Development Board (1950), on the one sectarianism that not only structures 1959. Latif al Ani Collection (Copyright, hand, and the almost coterminous ex- the new Iraqi government, but pervades Arab Image Foundation) plosion of modernist aesthetic innova- cultural and social life in Iraq today. tion? In other words, can we correlate Iraq, so the argument goes, is a tribal colonial maneuverings that privileged the economic and physical transforma- nation cobbled together from three Ot- certain groups at the expense of oth- tion of Iraq, what most historians have toman provinces by a European power, ers, and the ethnic tensions that have regarded as Iraq’s embrace of “moder- held together through brute force alone. been manifested as a result of this, but nity,” with the rise of modernism in ar- The disintegration of the Iraqi state and the danger of such an approach is to chitecture and the arts? In answering its inability to cultivate a public sphere read Iraq entirely through the window this question, it is important to dif- through which all Iraqis, regardless of tribal and sectarian identity, a tau- ferentiate the terms themselves — the of their ethnic or religious affiliation, tological approach that attributes any processes of modernization, modern- could participate, is considered incon- and all problems to some inherent es- ism in the arts, and the nebulous cate- trovertible evidence that Iraq is not sence rather than to specific historical gory of modernity are not coterminous, only a failed state, but cannot be prop- and political conditions. “Nationalism though they are often employed inter- erly considered a nation. What we are is not the awakening of nations to self- changeably. One way of differentiating witnessing today, then, is a historical consciousness,” writes Ernest Gellner, between these different concepts is to corrective, a redrawing of borders that “it invents nations where they do not critically assess the politics of aesthet- were originally imposed by a colonial exist.”1 My project suggests that the ic forms — when, how, and why aes- power due. production of Iraqi identity, like any thetic objects take the forms that they The problem with this view is that it national identity, is dependent upon do. My project emphasizes Baghdad’s is ahistorical; certainly it is important particular political, economic, and cul- modern architectural renaissance for to consider the British role in produc- tural factors, and must be historicized several reasons: Architecture is limited ing the modern state of Iraq, the typical to reflect the contingent and unstable by its materiality, its essentially sym- factors that produce identities with bolic character, and its reliance on fi- multiple affiliations (national, religious, tribal, etc.). The period my project scrutinizes (1950–1963) is, I argue, formative in the production of a secular, middle class Iraqi identity, a period that is regarded by many, perhaps uncritically, as a golden era in Iraqi political, economic, and cultural development. Whether it was Baghdad’s leading role in the free verse movement in Arabic poetry, the innovation of its sculptors and painters, or its rapid Figure 2.2. Housing Project, Mamoun Dis- physical and architectural transforma- trict, Baghdad, 1960. Latif al Ani Collection tion, Baghdad was rapidly embracing Figure 2.3. Baghdad, 1960. Latif al Ani Col- (Copyright, Arab Image Foundation) all things modern. My work attempts to lection (Copyright, Arab Image Foundation) PAGE 10 TAARII NEWSLETTER nancial capital. Reflecting the histori- that followed the logic of European process as a necessary and ultimately cal circumstances of its production in progress and development entirely, or enabling moment in Iraqi — and Arab an over-determined way, as an object one that was distinctly local? How, — history. But while the modernist of study, architecture exposes the im- precisely, was the dialectic between the architectural production of this period pact of politics and ideology in a more universal and the local resolved? On the closely mirrored the ideology of the transparent way than literature or the architectural level, the work of Rifat state, the realm of literature was one of plastic arts. In Baghdad, the spectacle Chadirji provides the most instructive the few mediums through which unease of architecture, its material as well as example of the attempt to combine and opposition to the changing physi- its symbolic impact, reordered not only vernacular Iraqi architecture with the cal and social worlds would emerge. the spatial organization of the city and demands of modernism in international The literary modernisms of the peri- its landmarks, but also people’s rela- architecture. My project interrogates od, produced by the poets of the free tionships to the built environment, to what I claim becomes a mechanized verse movement as well as prose writ- each other, and most importantly, to the use of the vernacular, suggesting that ers like Jabra, often express vehement state. The most significant changes to the attempt to integrate the region into reactions against modernization while Baghdad’s spatial organization in this an international modernist order while simultaneously replicating its tenden- period were the construction of new, simultaneously claiming a regional cies through their formal insistence wide avenues that connected districts of particularity became nothing more on novelty, innovation, and the updat- the city on opposite sides of the Tigris than an appendage to that order. In ing and reconstitution of older forms. River to new bridges that spanned it. other words, the attempt to carve out If modernization as we understand it The building of these roads and bridges an independent space, what today is today is about industry, progress, the and their distinctly modern forms — termed an “alternative modernity,” was, building of dams and irrigation proj- characterized by their width, linearity, in the end, a material impossibility. ects, the building of bridges and roads, and efficiency — suggests that, for a While the history of the Iraqi Devel- linking villages to the electric grid nation newly flush with oil revenues, opment Board and its many projects2 — in other words, technological prog- the control and care of national space and commissions has been document- ress — then it becomes clear that one was viewed for the first time as being ed, very little attention has been paid aspect of modernization is the aesthetic intimately tied to the nation’s success. to its place in the history of modern- modernism that is created as a protest Moreover, the nation’s success hinged ization studies in general, and even precisely against this modernization. on the ability of the state to discipline less to its problematic origin as a We can conceive of these anti-modern its population in a more effective man- joint British-Iraqi project staffed with modernisms as a symbolic intervention ner. As such, I suggest that the con- American advisors. My aim is to locate into the social world, and they register trol and development of the nation’s the Iraq Development Board, with its a deep unease with the material trans- physical space — which included the grand vision of placing Iraq firmly in formations of the modern.4 This is ap- material process of altering the capi- the modern world, within discourses parent, for example, in Badr Shakir al- tal city — was reliant on the devices of of development and progress that are a Sayyab’s idyllic portrayals of his home international architectural modernism reconstitution of the colonial relation- village of Jaykur, near Basra, as a trope and urban planning. The Development ship. The role of international mod- through which the corruption of the Board’s vision was of a new city, and ernist architectural practice, expressed modern city is critiqued. We see similar a new national order, built on the ra- through Le Corbusier’s International gestures by other poets and writers of tional and efficient organization of its Style and Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus, far the period, and part of my project is to structures. from being neutral or objective, pro- consider Iraq’s modernization through The urban plans for Baghdad and duced in Iraq as elsewhere in the world the complex and contradictory portray- the Development Board’s celebrated what philosopher Henri Lefebvre has als, sometimes ambivalent, sometimes recruitment of internationally renowned called a “worldwide architecture of the oppositional, of its most celebrated po- modernist architects (Walter Gropius, state.”3 ets and writers. Gio Ponti, Le Corbusier, and Frank The contradictions of Baghdad’s en- In retrospect, we can today claim that Lloyd Wright) to design signature chantment with modernity are appar- a secular, ascendant Iraqi middle class buildings in the city were more than ent when juxtaposing the celebratory identity has its roots in this period, when innocuous attempts to build a modern narratives of progress and development the convergence of oil wealth and the city with its appropriate modern put forth by the Development Board consolidation of state power produced structures. These plans had, first, to with writers whose literary works were entirely new relationships between the be staged in the imagination. How was oppositional, registering unease, am- state and its subjects. I suggest that the the spectacle of modernity staged? bivalence, and discontent with domi- innovations of modernism in Iraq con- How was it narrated and rationalized? nant, celebratory narratives of a uto- stituted the medium through which the What sorts of discursive dialogues pian, technological future. This is not bureaucratic control of the state was with European modernity took place? to suggest that many writers of the strengthened through the 1950s, leading Was the Iraqi modernity that was period, such as Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, to the coup of 1958. This leads to a fun- fashioned a derivative modernity, one did not also view the modernization damental question about the relationship FALL 2007 PAGE 11 between aesthetics and politics: In the BOOK DONATIONS case of the arts, how did modernism function as an appendage to the nation TAARII seeks donations for its permanent library. Currently located building projects of the state? How do in the Amman office, this collection will be relocated when the state apparatuses direct development Institute moves to Iraq. To date, TAARII has received the gift of a toward international markets in a neo- colonial manner, yet do so in the name substantial collection of archaeological sources. TAARII welcomes of popular nationalism? These ques- book donations in this and other fields. In particular, TAARII tions are one way of addressing what seeks the donation of The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Index has become a contested issue in de- Islamicus. Please visit the TAARII website for the current catalog bates about the advent of “modernity,” of the TAARII library (www.taarii.org). Contact us regarding new namely, the problem of its historical progression, its supposed elaboration donations at [email protected]. from Europe to the global south, and Thanks to those individuals and institutions who have donated books the various attempts to account for to Iraqi institutions of research and higher learning through TAARII. its uneven manifestations around the world. Is it even possible to speak of We sadly announce that due to changes in the United States Postal modernity as a process? Is “moderni- Service M-bags program, we will no longer be able to cover the cost ty” to be analyzed as a world-histori- of transporting donated books to Iraq. cal event, originating in Europe, that structures the political, economic, and cultural spheres in the Third World? NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS, COMMENTS, & SUGGESTIONS Or as Fredric Jameson contends, is modernity only valid as a conceptual To submit articles, images, or announcements in either category when it is discussed in asso- English or Arabic, please email Katie Johnson at [email protected] for ciation with capitalism?5 Can we speak submission details. The deadline for the spring issue of the TAARII of alternative, non-European moderni- Newsletter is December 1, 2007. ties? While these are broad theoretical questions, my project undertakes a his- For all other inquiries, comments, and suggestions, please visit our torically specific analysis of the role of website, www.taarii.org. the arts in the production of the modern Iraqi citizen, and the complicated FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES negotiations of identity — secular, sectarian, and modern — that took place The annual deadline for submission of applications to the U.S. Fellows Program as a result. is November 15 for projects beginning as early as March 2008. Applications from Iraqis and collaborative teams are welcomed on a ROLLING basis. Individual Iraqis may request up to $4,000 and teams of individual U.S. and Iraqi scholars 1 Ernest Gellner, Thought and Change wishing to collaborate may request up to $14,000. For additional information, (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, please visit the TAARII website: www.taarii.org. To submit a collaborative 1964), pp. 169. proposal, contact [email protected]. 2 See, for example, Lord Arthur Salter, The Development of Iraq: A Plan of Action (London: Caxton Press, 1953). See also, Abbas Alnasrawi, Financing Economic Development in Iraq: The Role of Oil in • INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS • a Middle Eastern Economy (New York: Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, 1967). American Schools of Oriental Research Kimbell Art Museum 3 Henri Levebvre, The Production of University of Arizona University of Maryland Space, translated by Donald Nicholson Boston University New York University Smith (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, University of California, Berkeley University of Notre Dame 1991), pp. 26. University of California, Los Angeles University of Pennsylvania Museum 4 Critic Fredric Jameson considers the question of anti-modern modernisms at University of California, Santa Barbara Rutgers University length in his seminal book Postmodern- University of Chicago State University of New York, Buffalo ism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capi- Columbia University State University of New York, Stony Brook talism (Durham: Duke University Press, Duke University University of Texas, Austin 1991). Georgetown University University of Utah 5 Fredric Jameson, A Singular Moderni- Harvard University Williams College ty: Essay on the Ontology of the Present Hofstra University Yale University (New York: Verso, 2002). PAGE 12 TAARII NEWSLETTER

(RE)FORMING INTIMACY IN REVOLUTIONARY IRAQ: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE PERSONAL STATUS LAW OF 1959

SARA PURSLEY, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

On July 14, 1958, power in Iraq promulgated by Qasim’s regime. The ing an independent nation-state. Taking changed hands through a military coup, first was the Agrarian Reform Law of these differences seriously, my project but historians (as well as Iraqis) have 1958 setting limits on the size of indi- examines modes of reasoning and forms generally agreed that the event is better vidual landholdings, the struggle over of political intervention employed by a described as a revolution. The events which has been a serious consideration number of overlapping groups involved of the day certainly looked like a rev- of historians. The second was the Per- in the struggle over personal status re- olution to those who witnessed them. sonal Status Law of 1959, which reform in Iraq from 1958–63. Within hours of the coup, the streets of moved family law from the domain Three of these groups will be briefly Baghdad were filled with crowds cel- of religious authorities and brought it discussed here, to give a sense of the ebrating the overthrow of the thirty- under the control of the state. Among direction of my research: 1) Iraqi com- seven year old British-made monarchy, other provisions, the new civil codes set munists, especially female members while the body of the king himself was a minimum age on marriage, restricted of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), dragged through the streets and the polygyny and unilateral male divorce who drafted and were the main non- British Embassy went up in flames. In and, most controversially, mandated state advocates of the Personal Status the days and months that followed, the equality in intestate inheritance between Law; 2) students and artists of what has new regime implemented the kinds of male and female heirs. been variously described as the youth political and social change often asso- In spite of the fact that the law immedi- movement, the counterculture, and the ciated with nationalist revolution and ately became a flashpoint for many of the “Baghdad Renaissance” of the 1950s; postcolonial rebuilding. The monarchy country’s political and social conflicts, and 3) Shiªi intellectuals of the emerg- was officially abolished, a republic was that the controversy produced around it ing political revivalist movement cen- declared, the government’s political has sometimes been seen as a factor in tered in Najaf. The activities and aims and economic subservience to Britain the destabilization of Qasim’s govern- of these groups reflected conflicting was terminated, land reforms were im- ment, and that its revision (including the conceptions of family, gender, and sex- plemented, (some) political parties and repeal of its equal inheritance clause) ual equality, and one of the early ideas newspapers were (briefly) legalized, was one of the first legislative acts of behind my dissertation was that such and there was a proliferation of politi- the new Baªth regime in 1963, it has conceptions would come most clearly cal, social, and civic organizations of received scant, and mostly superficial, into view when they appeared on oppos- all kinds. Abdul-Salaam Yousif writes historical analysis.2 It is often posited as ing sides of the political conflict over that July 14 was an “explosive rupture a well-intentioned but doomed attempt the 1959 law. The further I get into my in the very fabric of Iraqi society.”1 to force liberal progress on a traditional research, however, the more aware I be- Five years later, in February 1963, country in too rapid and heavy-handed a come that many of the issues at stake in Iraqi prime minister and 1958 coup manner, or as a somewhat absent-minded this struggle may actually be obscured leader ªAbd al-Karim Qasim was over- and naive assault of the secular state on if our analytical approach adheres un- thrown and assassinated by members of Islamic authority. Either way, it appears questioningly to the political division of the Baªth party. Historians have made as something inauthentic, imposed on an the conflict into two sides, especially if a number of arguments to help explain uncomprehending or just plain hostile these are assumed to neatly correspond the fall of Iraq’s first post-monarchical Iraqi public by the new regime. My dis- to categories such as progressive/tradi- government, pointing to the geopoliti- sertation research suggests instead that tional, liberal/conservative, left/right, cal dynamics of the Cold War, Qasim’s the conflict over the personal status law secular/religious. increasingly dictatorial tendencies, and engaged many different actors at all lev- During the first year of the 1958 revo- deep political differences within the els of Iraqi society, and that it did so be- lution, the ICP was, by nearly everyone’s revolution’s initial base of support- cause it both reflected and activated real account, the most powerful movement ers, especially the well-known conflict differences within that society over the in Iraq and the new government’s stron- between the communists and the pan- rights of women, the forms and priorities gest base of support.3 It either controlled Arab nationalists. Some of the most of intimate relationships, and the roles or had significant influence within the important battlegrounds of the years of masculinity, femininity, sexuality, majority of popular organizations that 1958–63 were formed around two laws law, and religion in the project of build- had emerged after the revolution, in- FALL 2007 PAGE 13 cluding the League for the Defense of made it lean more radically towards sexual experimentation, and many of Women’s Rights (LDWR). Founded sexual equality than it would have had it the important artists of the time (most in 1952 by young female members of been solely the work of state reformers. of whom were either card-carrying the party, the League operated more or On the other hand, the intent of the communists or fellow travelers) less underground, along with most of Iraqi law was clearly not restricted to explored gender roles, sexual moralities, the other communist front organiza- the promotion of sexual equality. As and various types of family structures tions, until the July revolution. During with reforms in other Arab states dur- as repressive human inventions, those years, it distributed clandestine ing this time, it was also (and perhaps generating a discourse of (often male) literature defending women’s rights primarily) concerned with discourag- longing for sexual liberation. Iraqi and was involved in organizing women ing certain kinds of associations and novelist Khalid Kishtainy gives a during the 1952, 1954, and 1956 rebel- intimate relations (e.g., extended fam- sense of this counterculture when he lions. In March 1959, after less than a ily ties, polygyny, temporary marriage) describes how he and his friends took to year of open operations, it reported a as well as divorce. (A drive for sexual haunting Kallachia, the brothel ghetto membership of 25,000, and by 1960 equality could have simply expanded of Baghdad, in the 1950s: “We used claimed 43,000 official members. The women’s rights to divorce, but the law to stroll into the nooks and crannies of mid-twentieth century feminist move- in Iraq, as in many other states, seemed the old lanes reciting passages from the ment in Iraq was inseparable from the more interested in curtailing men’s Communist Manifesto and verses from communist movement (which may help rights to divorce.) The aim was un- Bahr al-Ulum’s poem on the prostitute’s explain why the former has not generat- doubtedly to encourage the formation grave. There was the painter who paid a ed much interest on the part of Western of what is often called the modern bour- black whore only to sit for him. There historians). One small but remarkable geois family, which in its classic form was the story writer who invited a sign of just how linked the two were — and certainly its dominant form dur- blind one to a meal of kebab only to can be found in U.S. State Department ing the 1950s in the West — was char- hear her story … There was the real records from the Baghdad embassy in acterized by marital companionship and political writer who actually went to 1959. An embassy official reported an ideal of permanence, monogamy, do- bed with Zahra and came out crying.”6 with alarm a recent statement by Qasim mesticity, new and comparatively rigid Conversations with Iraqis who lived that he planned to appoint a woman to forms of sexual morality, and a gen- through the 1950s often suggest that the the highest levels of the Iraqi govern- dered division of labor corresponding youth movement was an important base ment. The American official predicted to the modern division of society into of support for the Personal Status Law (correctly, as it turned out) that this public and private spheres. It is likely of 1959, or even that the “generation almost surely meant Qasim was about that this aim was shared by the state re- gap” was at the root of the whole to appoint a communist, since “among formers who promulgated the law and conflict, and there is undoubtedly some women currently active on local scene, the leaders of the LDWR who drafted truth in this. But what interests me here it would be difficult [to] find one not it, the former because this family type is whether different Iraqi conceptions of far left.”4 has historically been seen as important family and sexual intimacy are masked The LDWR drafted a version of the to the formation of a unified and loyal by viewing the very public struggle over Personal Status Law, which was then citizenry in modern nation states, and legal reform in simple pro and con terms submitted to the government; it is not the latter because they believed it was (and not just on the “pro” side, as I will known to what extent it matched the in the best interests of women to replace discuss below regarding the Islamists). version promulgated by Qasim’s gov- extended patrilineal kinship structures Whatever else it might have been, it ernment in 1959. In addition, similari- with smaller nuclear families based on seems clear that the 1959 law, with ties and differences between the Iraqi marital cooperation. its emphasis on restricting temporary law and personal status reforms in other But the restrictions and sexual marriage, polygyny, and men’s right Arab countries during this time period moralities involved in promoting to divorce, was not exclusively or even have not really been examined. The this new family structure may have primarily concerned with extending most important difference may be the existed in some sort of tension with individual freedoms or rights of choice equalization of inheritance law; the le- other elements on the Iraqi left. Hanna over one’s intimate relationships, gal reforms of no other Arab country Batatu, one of the foremost historians creating some potential dissonance during this time period included such of twentieth century Iraq, expresses a between it and the concerns of at least a provision. While some historians of well-known truism that communism some of the well-known artists and Iraq have dismissed the 1959 law as the in that country “did not implant itself activists of this generation. naive work of a well-intentioned mi- in the visible citadels of power but in Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of nority of government reformers, it may the hearts and minds of youth.”5 Iraq’s my research so far relates to forms of turn out that the law’s origins in large, youth movement of the 1950s, and intervention concerns women’s rights popular, and influential political orga- the artistic renaissance that is often and family structures from within the nizations (and thus its arguably greater linked to it, were associated not only incipient political Shiªi movement in connectedness to the actual society) with communism but with radical Iraq after 1958. In part, this movement PAGE 14 TAARII NEWSLETTER was represented by the political mobili- this legal issue and its many social con- 2 For a recent exception, see Noga Efrati, zation of senior mujtahids outraged by sequences as major concerns of women “Negotiating Rights in Iraq: Women and the the Personal Status Law as well as the — but that was in the future.) In Islamic Personal Status Law,” Middle East Journal land reform law, but these conservative law, a daughter inherits half the share 59:4 (2005). 3 clerics were by most accounts fighting of a son because the latter as an adult Prime Minister Qasim, in spite of initial American and British concerns, as well as a losing battle with the due is legally responsible for the economic Zeitgeist the erroneous statements of some writers of to their opposition to the revolution maintenance of a household, while the Iraqi history today, was not a communist with in its entirety. An arguably more sig- daughter’s property is and always re- either a capital or a lower-case “C”. To the nificant component of the Shiªi move- mains her own, to use as she wishes. In extent that he had a political ideology, and ment was led by a younger generation Western family law, Bint al-Huda con- he liked to claim that he did not, Qasim was of radical Islamists such as the famous tinues, a woman is free to inherit from an economically liberal Iraqi nationalist (as Shiªi scholar Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr her father an amount of property pre- opposed to a pan-Arab nationalist). He tried and his sister Amina Bint Haydar al- cisely equal to that of her brother, un- to use the communists to combat the Arab nationalists and vice versa. Sadr (more commonly known as Bint der the minor condition that she deliver 4 U.S. Embassy Baghdad to Secretary of al-Huda), who opposed the Personal it all to her husband the instant she is married. Bint al-Huda was not troubled State, July 10, 1959, USNA, RG84/787. Status Law but supported other revolu- 5 by sexual inequality in the law, but she Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and tionary initiatives such as land reform, the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq (Princ- was, arguably, concerned with women’s the expulsion of the British, and the eton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. overthrow of the monarchy. This group economic autonomy, particularly in re- 465. engaged simultaneously and self-con- lation to their husbands. Her many nov- 6 Khalid Kishtainy, The Prostitute in Progres- sciously with the senior clerics over the els and short stories, which are full of sive Literature (London: Allison & Busby, interpretation of Islamic law and with unhappy women in bad marriages, both 1982), p. 10, quoted in Yousif, “The Struggle the Marxist-influenced Shiªi youth who traditional and modern, reinforce this in- for Cultural Hegemony.” filled the ranks of the ICP and the stu- terpretation. (Bint al-Huda, incidental- dent movement. ly, never married and worked her entire My research focuses especially on the adult life as a teacher and writer while fictional and non-fictional writings of living with her more famous brother, the prolific Bint al-Huda. Her works, until they were both arrested, tortured, DISSERTATION which are widely available in Arabic but and murdered by Saddam Hussein’s se- have not been translated into English, curity forces in 1980.) PRIZES promote certain rights for women as In this brief discussion of some of the The American Academic Research well as a model of companionate mar- complications in viewing the conflict Institute in Iraq (TAARII) announces riage; she is sharply critical of arranged over the Personal Status Law in binary annual prizes for the best U.S. marriages, emphasizes the importance of terms, I do not mean to suggest that the doctoral dissertations on Iraq. compatibility and cooperation between different sides in the dispute somehow Dissertations defended during the spouses, and argues that a woman has wanted the same thing, or that they did 2007–2008 academic year are eligible the right to divorce her husband under not know what they were doing when and may come from any discipline Islamic law (though male clerics have they lined up on one side or the other. for the study of any time period. One corrupted the law over the centuries to On the contrary, I trust — and my re- award of $1,500 will be made for the deprive women of that right). Given her search has continuously affirmed — that best dissertation on ancient Iraq and unflinching criticism of the ªulama on a the many Iraqis who focused their en- number of issues concerning women’s ergies on a conflict over family law, at one award of $1,500 will be made for rights, as well as the logical rigor of a time when their country was beset by the best dissertation on medieval or many her arguments, I find it difficult to a great many problems, were correct in modern Iraq. Letters of nomination dismiss her opposition to the Personal their perception that the stakes involved should come from dissertation Status Law of 1959 as mere apologet- in it were high. The aim of my project advisors or committee members, ics. She argues that the law was derived is to help unravel some of the conflict- should explain the importance of the from the concept of marital partner- ing views of selfhood, ideals of intima- dissertation, and should accompany ship in Western jurisprudence, which cy, and hopes for a national future that a complete copy of the dissertation reinforces the economic dependency made this so. manuscript. Please send all and exploitation (istighlal) of women nominations/submissions by July by joining the property of husband and 1, 2008, to The American Academic 1 Abdul-Salaam Yousif, “The Struggle for wife and then giving the husband dis- Research Institute in Iraq, 1507 E. Cultural Hegemony during the Iraqi Revolu- 53rd Street, Suite 920, Chicago, IL proportionate rights over the suppos- tion,” in The Iraqi Revolution of 1958: The 60615. Queries may be addressed to edly joint property created by the mar- Old Social Classes Revisited, edited by Rob- riage. (A wave of feminist movements ert Fernea and William Roger Louis (London: [email protected]. in Western societies would soon take up I. B. Tauris & Co, 1991), p. 172. FALL 2007 PAGE 15 BECOME A MEMBER TAARII has several classes of membership. In addition to Institutional Membership, there are Individual Memberships, including one at a reduced rate for students and emeritus faculty. The costs of membership are as follows: Institutional Membership $250 Individual Professional Membership $35 Student and Emeritus Membership $20 Supporting (Non-Professional) Membership $50 Corporate Membership $1,000 To join, or to make a donation, please make checks payable to: TAARII The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq 1507 E. 53rd Street, Suite 920 Chicago, IL 60615 Contributions to TAARII are tax-deductible under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

YES I would like to join TAARII Institutional Membership $250 Individual Professional Membership $35 Student and Emeritus Membership $20 Supporting (Non-Professional) Membership $50 Corporate Membership $1,000 I would like to make an additional contribution of $ ______Name: ______Address: ______City: ______State: ______Zip: ______Email: ______Phone: ______Institutional Affiliation: ______Major Academic Discipline: ______Main Areas of Research Interest: ______Suggestions & Comments: ______Enclose completed form with check or money order in envelope and mail to: TAARII The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq 1507 E. 53rd Street, Suite 920 Chicago, IL 60615 PAGE 16 TAARII NEWSLETTER

THE IRAQI ORAL HISTORY PROJECT OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN IRAQ

LUCINE TAMINIAN TAARII Resident Director and Senior Scholar in Residence

Begun in 2005, TAARII’s two-year oral Ethnicity more hesitant they become. The poor history project aims to record Iraqi’s ac- Arab 13 among them who earn their living as counts of their lives in Iraq. During the Kurd 2 street vendors and thus face the harass- years 2005 and 2006, Dr. Hala Fattah, Assyrian/Chaldean 6 ment of local authorities are more oc- the then Resident Director of TAARII, Armenian 5 cupied with their present struggles than interviewed thirty-eight Iraqis living in with their memories of their past lives. Amman, Jordan, all of whom are of up- “Let me solve my problems with the Historical Background per middle class. To include other so- Municipality first and then I can talk to cial groups of Iraqis living in Jordan, I During the years 1991 to 2005, Jor- you about my life in Iraq,” was the re- joined the project with the task of inter- dan received two distinct and substan- sponse of a female street vendor when viewing Iraqis of lower socio-economic tial waves of Iraqi immigrants, who I suggested an interview. I had to make status. This report concerns only the in- fled their homes in search of security. many calls and pay visits to the Mu- terviews I carried out. The first of these waves consisted nicipality in Irbid to help her solve her Out of an initial twenty interviews, predominantly of Shiªites, who were problems before she agreed to be inter- eighteen were digitally recorded and either middle class professionals or viewed. Moreover, the recent interna- transcribed. Six were joint interviews, low-ranking army deserters, fleeing tional interest in the condition of Iraqi so the total number of people I inter- southern Iraq after the 1991 uprising. “refugees” in Jordan and Syria and the viewed is twenty-six: thirteen males The majority of the immigrants even- intent of the Jordanian government to and thirteen females. The majority of tually left Jordan for other Arab coun- do a survey study of Iraqis living in the interviewees are of lower socio-eco- tries that offered them jobs, or for Jordan made Iraqis more cautious. One nomic status or impoverished middle any Western country that would grant Iraqi whom I approached for an inter- class Iraqis who live on their pension them refugee status. The second wave view told me that a priest had warned salaries, which have devalued tremen- of immigrants consisted mainly of af- not to speak to foreigners and to be dously since the 1990s embargo. Some fluent Sunnis or poor Christians (As- cautious in doing so. In sum, fear and survive on money sent by relatives liv- syrians, Chaldeans, and Armenians) the burden of their new lives in Jordan ing in the West. As the table given be- who fled for their lives after the col- silence Iraqis’ memories and make the low shows, the interviewees represent lapse of the regime in 2003, or after task of the researcher more difficult. the cultural and ethnic diversity of Iraqi the subsequent spread of sectarian Second, the dispersal of Iraqis in the society, however, the data collected to violence. Today, more than 700,000 neighborhoods of major cities adds to date permit only limited generalization. Iraqis live in Jordan, dispersed in the challenges of field research, espe- The open-ended questions posed so- various neighborhoods and refugee cially if the researcher is an anthro- licit information on education, mar- camps of the major cities. The rich, pologist who is used to living in the riage, social relations, and residency for known as the investors, move freely research “community” and building four or five generations (the informant, in and out of the country, whereas as good relations with the informants be- his/her siblings, parents, uncles, aunts, the poor are relatively immobile and fore starting the research. Yet, I can children, grandchildren, and grandpar- live with the continuous threat of de- tentatively say that temporary “com- ents), and allow for comparison across portation for illegal residency. munities” of Iraqis do exist in Jordan. generations, education, class, ethnicity, For instance, 120 poor Assyrian fami- and religion. Methodological Issues lies live in a neighborhood in eastern Amman and meet in a “Jordanian” Three issues of methodological sig- church everyday to pray, run Assyr- Religion nificance have arisen in the interviews. ian language classes, and to voice their Muslim/Sunni 6 First, due to their past and present grievances to the international visitors. Muslim/Shiªite 9 experiences, Iraqis live in constant fear These Assyrians constitute a commu- Christian 11 and are very hesitant to speak about the nity in transit, whose members have recent past or the present. The more either applied for immigration visas to violent the situation in Iraq gets, the FALL 2007 PAGE 17

Western countries or plan to go back and about the friendly relations among men showed interest in me. I did not to Iraq when things settle down. In the neighbors of different sects and reli- want to marry; they were all well-edu- same way, more affluent Iraqis have gions. Their stories constitute a com- cated but they had to serve in the army. created their own public spaces and set ment on the current situation in Iraq and They had to leave and go to the front up Iraqi restaurants and cafe shops in a refutation of the sectarian violence to fight. I didn’t want to live the same western Amman that are mainly fre- shattering its social fabrics rather than experience my sister had. Her husband quented by other affluent Iraqis. The nostalgia for the past. was called up a month after their mar- Iraqi Shiªites, who gather during their riage. He fell in captivity and remained annual religious ceremonies in a shrine The Politics of Identity. All the inter- in a jail in Iran for twelve years. Mar- built recently on a historical site in viewees identify themselves as Iraqi, riage has no meaning in such a case. southern Jordan to commemorate the but for non-Arabs the ethnic identity She was miserable; as a single woman death of Ali and Hussein, create their prevails over a national one. The under- I was better off.” own community, as well. However, lining of an ethnic identity quite often Arranged marriages did occur in the due to recent animosity towards the constitutes an invention of a national generation of 60+ years, dwindled in Shiªites in Jordan, this community identity that involves a re-reading of the the younger generations (40+ years), now prefers to celebrate in Damascus Iraqi history and/or a reclaiming of a but are increasing in the youngest gen- rather than in southern Jordan where suppressed ethnic identity. An Assyrian eration. For a good number of families, they are hailed with stones. It was eas- who identified himself as Assyrian con- marriage is now seen as a path to secu- ier for me as a woman to get to know sidered Iraq the land of the Assyrians: rity not just for their daughters, but also the community centered on the church “What is Iraq? Iraq is Assyrian. The As- for the whole family. Such families than to acquaint myself with the ones syrian civilization constitutes the spirit tend to arrange to marry their daughters centered on restaurants, cafe shops, or of Iraq. When I say I am Assyrian, it to someone living in a Western coun- the shrine. is implied that I am Iraqi.” Whereas an try with the hope that, once she settles Third, the majority of Iraqi men Armenian insisted, “I am Armenian first there, she can secure immigration visas between the ages of 45 and 60 spent and then Iraqi. During the Baªth era we for the whole family. Such marriages twelve to fifteen years of their lives were not allowed to say we are Arme- are more noticeable among Assyrian, serving in the Iraqi army. Therefore, nian. They [Baªthists] claimed whoever Chaldean, and Shiªite families who remembering the past is painful. When lives in the Arab countries is an Arab. regard their respective diasporic com- I told a fifty-two year old man about Now, I want to say loudly I am Arme- munities as a pool of prospective hus- the research project, he smiled sadly nian, an Iraqi Armenian.” bands for their own daughters. A young and said, “I had no life, I spent the best Shiªite woman of twenty-five who is The Politics of Marriage. A compari- part of my life serving in the army; engaged to a Shiªite living in Califor- son among the marriage patterns of the fifteen years of fighting, first in the nia explained the arrangement to me: three or four generations covered by north, then in the south, then back to “He is a friend of my cousin who lives the TAARII questionnaire indicates a the north. All I remember is destruc- in California; my cousin arranged the change in marriage practices and in the tion and dead bodies!” In such a case, marriage. He talked to my parents, and family politics of marrying daughters interviewing was a painful task for the they said fine. I have never met him, but out. Whereas the generation of parents interviewees, as well as for the inter- I now correspond with him through the or grandparents of the interviewees viewer. internet: he sent me his photo and I sent tended to marry in, the generation of in- mine to him. I know how he looks.” terviewees themselves tended to marry Her sister smiled approvingly, “Hope- General Findings out. No intermarriage across groups was fully she will manage to get us there, recorded in the first and second genera- The collected data allow for some too.” An Assyrian pointed out to me, tions, whereas more than six occurred generalizations that deserve further in- “This is the beginning of the wedding in the third generation: a Sunni marry- vestigation. In this report, I’ll briefly season, it is the time when Assyrians ing a Shiªite, a Chaldean marrying an discuss three major issues. living abroad come to be wed to Assyr- Armenian, a Shiªite marrying a Sunni ian women living here. Their families The Politics of Memory. The act of (three cases), and an Armenian marry- hope that they [daughters] can secure remembering by the majority of the in- ing a Chaldean. visas for them. Iraqi girls now prefer to terviewees was quite often shaped by Quite a few number of the women marry someone living abroad. He opens the current events in Iraq. In narrating who reached marriageable age (20+ the way for her to live in a secure coun- the past, they repeatedly underlined the years) during the Iran-Iraq war (1980– try. They have no reason to marry Iraqi fact that Iraqi society previously had 1989) chose not to get married for men living in Jordan or Iraq; they are never been sectarian and took pains to fear of losing their husbands to war. A jobless and can’t feed them.” prove this to me, telling me about the single female interviewee said, “When numerous intermarriages that occurred I graduated from the university many PAGE 18 TAARII NEWSLETTER

Due to the length of the contributions of this issue of the TAARII Newsletter, we are unable to include all of the articles in Arabic in the print version. However, there will be a full Arabic version available online in October 2007. FALL 2007 PAGE 19 TAARIIPAGE 20 TAARII NEWSLETTER The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq 1507 E. 53rd St., Suite 920 • Chicago, IL 60615 Ph. (773) 844-9658 • Fax (773) 288-3174 www.taarii.org

IN THIS ISSUE ABOUT TAARII TAARII has been formed by a consortium of universi- “1950s Baghdad — Modern and International” ties, colleges, and museums, which comprise its institu- Mina Marefat 1 tional membership. Each institution names a person to President’s Report 8/17 act as its representative on the Board of Directors. In- Executive Director’s Report 8 dividual Members elect additional Directors. The Offi- “Cultivating the Nation-Space: Modernism and cers, along with two members of the Board of Directors, Nation Building in Iraq, 1950–1963” comprise the Executive Committee, which is charged Haytham Bahoora 9 with assuring academic integrity, organizational over- “(Re)forming Intimacy in Revolutionary Iraq: sight, and financial and programmatic accountability. A Social History of the Personal Status Law of 1959” Sara Pursley 12 TAARII is a non-governmental organization and is incor- “TAARII’s Oral History Project” porated in the state of Illinois as a not for profit organization Lucine Taminian 16 and has 501(c)3 status with the Internal Revenue Service.